Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Wedding Wednesday: My Family Wedding Shower

I'm back with another wedding post! This past weekend my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law hosted a shower for me at the lake. They have been planning this for many months so I was so excited to see what all they had up their sleeve!

First things first, here was the invitation! As you all know, I love all things French so the Paris theme was perfect for me! They also incorporated our wedding colors (navy, gold and light pink).

The shower was held at the church in the town by my parents lake home where my parents are members. It was nice to have it off-site as we had enough craziness at the lake home with all my siblings/nieces/nephews. A lot of my aunts and cousins weren't able to attend since Easter weekend is a busy weekend for many, but I had my mom, my mother-in-law-to-be and all of my sisters and sisters-in-law there, plus an aunt and several cousins from my dad's side of the family. So we still had a nice 20+ sized group of people!

My Chicago SIL handled all of the decor. Party planning and decorating is totally her thing (this is the SIL that flew in to help me make our centerpieces). Each of the tables had an Eiffel Tower centerpiece plus paper flowers that she made herself using her cricut! I gathered all of the paper flowers to use at our reception.

Similar to my Minneapolis shower, I was greeted with mimosas!

Then it was time to take some pictures!

My mom is on the left and my mother-in-law-to-be is on the right

Surrounded by my sisters and sisters-in-law. My sisters are standing next to me (many people have mistaken Abby, the sister on my left, as my twin!), and my sisters-in-law are on the ends. I really think of my sisters-in-law as sisters, though, and am very close to them. My brothers couldn't have picked more amazing women to marry! My sisters will be matrons of honor. I'm so excited to have them stand up there with me as we say our vows!

Emily, Abby, me, Emily (yes I have a sister and SIL with the same name!) and Julie

My sister-in-law Emily made me this sash, which was begging for a pose like this!

The food at the shower so so good! My mom and SIL Julie made 6 different quiches. They also had croissants for the gluten eaters, cheese & crackers, and a veggie tray.

Here's a close-up of the quiches. One was crustless and the other 5 had homemade gluten free crusts. My mom is the best pie maker and has found a great recipe for GF pie crust (GF pie people - check out the America's Test Kitchen GF cookbook - the pie crust recipe is wonderful, as are all the recipes we've tried).

For dessert, we had fresh fruit with a dipping sauce, Eiffel Tower chocolate treats, peanut butter truffles, and macarons!!

After stuffing my face with all of that delicious food (I did not hold back, I've been eating healthy lately but have given myself permission to enjoy the heck out of these special events!), it was time to open gifts!

I didn't share any photos of my gifts from my last shower but here are a couple of photos of gifts. We registered at Crate & Barrel and Amazon. For our plates, we went with a basic white style. I had so many bright-colored platters so decided to go with white as it will go with anything!

Our chip & dip platter - this will get put to use at my Mexican-themed Bach Party that my sister and friend are hosting at our house.

My aunt had a cutting board made for us with my new last name!

There was one mystery gift at the end...

I'm hoping and praying that we'll need the other one within the next year or so!!

Our family was so generous so we came home with quite the haul. This is just some of the boxes. It's making my minimalist fiance feel a little panicky but I have gotten rid of quite a bit of stuff over the last 2 weeks as we've unpacked our gifts.

We get a couple of weeks off from wedding-festivities and then during the first week of May, my colleague/mentor and his wife are hosting a pre-wedding Cinco de Mayo party at his house for work friends and then the following day I have my "Girls Gone Mild" bachelorette party which will also be Mexican-themed. What can I say? This girl loooooves tacos!

It's hard to believe that I will say "I do" one month from today!!! Life sure is good!

13 comments:

AHHHH!!!!!!! SO FUN!!!!!!! Love love love the invitation and the centerpieces and you look just GORGEOUS!!!!!!! The food all looked AMAZING!!!! So glad you enjoyed everything!!!!!! Side note, I never realized how much your nephews look like Julie! LOVE that your family was able to all come together to celebrate, SO SPECIAL!!!!! Soaking up all the fun events and enjoying the moments and the memories is all priceless!!!!!! HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

So glad you enjoyed the shower! Felt funny planning things without you - as you are typically the star coordinator/planner in the family 😉 such a fun weekend! I am so excited for your next event - Girls Gone Mild!! You look so gorgeous in all these picture by the way!

Great re-cap! Everyone pitched in and made it a fun event. You excitement not only shows on your face but can be felt in your presence! You might have to add on to your house to make room for the gifts you have and will receive! I am sure minimalist Phil would really go for that idea! Can't believe it is only one month from today and am so excited myself!I love, love, love weddings, especially for my children!

This is fabulous -- so much thought into it with your invites and centerpieces and even the chocolates! The quiches look fabulous -- that's a great idea for a brunch. Very tasty and nice they had GF crusts, too! Your dress was adorable and I really like the idea of the mystery gift! Oh, do you have any idea?

Lisa, it's all so happy and fun. You must be over the moon! I'm so very, very happy for you.

What a beautiful shower! Your family really did an amazing job planning something that was SO YOU!! I also think it's awesome that you are getting rid of things as you get gifts at your showers!! So smart!

Your next two wedding events sound sooo fun as well! Love that they both will include mexican food!! I am so glad your friends and family are rallying to throw you some amazing pre-wedding events, you completely deserve it <3 <3

The baby shoe is a suuuuper cute gift idea (though it would probably freak me out at first! Like let's get through the wedding first, please!). But seriously, it looks like you had a fabulous shower. I'm having the same colors for my wedding in May 2018 - I've always loved the navy blue and pink combo, and the gold just accents it so well, right? :)

I hope you get the second shoe soon!! I love seeing all your wedding posts. We did navy and pink as well, I love that color combo! So so excited to watch the rest of your wedding events unfold. Enjoy this super special time! xoxo

About Lisa

Hi, I'm Lisa! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm a 30-something living in Minneapolis, MN which is a city I adore. I have many loves but some that top the list are running, reading, traveling and all things French.